Flat footed or up on balls of feet?

The key to making the throw to second is to get your rear even with or even slightly higher than the knees. This allows the catcher to "fire out" toward second...on the toes leads to standing up tall to throw.

no offfense Doddles, but that goes against alot of what I've learned. from what i understand, you don't want your butt too high, and when you throw, you don't want to be standing tall, you want to be wide and low. taking time to stand tall does just that - takes time.
but I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that's not what I've learned from McDonald and others.

It's tough to vote against Rob McDonald, maybe you should loan your copy of his video to your son's coach.

What video from CatchingCoach are your referring to? Do I need to expand my library?

My heels are barely off the ground, be flat footed for me makes it hard to drop straight down and block balls

Style - yes, CatchingCoach has a dvd for sale on his site.

http://www.catchingcamp.com/

I go flat footed, but it does get annoying and sometime I really want to go on the balls of my feet. What are advantages to flat-footed?

What is the best DVD to get as a player?

i get flatfooted but i have my weight on the balls of my feet. also, if you get your butt high then you tend to stand straight up and also you tend to not wait for the pitch to come to you.

I am on the balls of my feet, always. I have never really tried being flatfooted. It does make it easier to move, but is also more tiring. I will try it out at practice and see.

Balls of your feet always. Being flat footed just leads to a non athletic position. Do you do squats on flat footed? No you do them on the balls of your feet using your legs. Do you every see anyone throw flat footed? No you lose alot of power if you being flat footed. All flat footed does is make you stand up tall. Hate to go against what rob says but being on the balls of your feet makes for a athletic catcher. You dont have to be on your toes. Nice wide base, Weight on balls of feet with heels slightly up not in a overwelmingly unathletic position.

What I think is causing the confusion here is the term "flat-footed". Just because the players heels touch the ground does not make him non-athletic in his postion. For those catchers that say they are more balanced and more athletic I would ask if they hit with a stance up on the balls of their feet, we their heels lifted off the ground?

I suspect they do not hit up on the balls of their feet. It would not be a very balanced postion to hit in. For the same reason catching on the balls of the feet is not very balanced either.

Catcher's that want a solid base, one that allows them to move left to right, should always be set up with their toes pointed up the baselines and their heels in contact with the ground. Not sitting back on their heels, but in contact woith the ground at all times.

I have added some pics in a photo album online that show catchers in trheir receiving positions as I have described. One of the pictures shows a 10 yr old catcher in a very nice man-on pic. Thighs flat to the ground. Weight well balanced. The other 2 pics are of a very good fastpitch receiver and the last one is my oldest son from a clinic he and I just did.

Any questions let me know

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/catchingcamp/my_photos

I see now, I must have misunderstood. I thought like pointing at pitcher and tried it and was like this is extremely uncomfortable. Does this position make it easier to block also? I am usually on the balls of my feet, and pointing straight towards pitcher, and it is harder to get down on my knees. Thanks for the info, I will try it out.

I have the McDonald DVD and feel it is the best around for catching instruction.

However, I am curious about the Catching Coach DVD.

Could someone who has this DVD post what skills and drills are covered on the disc?

Thanks for the help.

To dovetail what Catching Coach said, you want your toes pointing out to the lines (just like the proper form used in executing a parallel squat). You do not want to be flat footed, but your heels are touching the ground. Feel your weight on the inside of your feet. This stance will help increase your lateral movement, and put you in a great position to drop and block the ball down. In addition it puts your knees closer to your midline making it difficult for the runner on first base to pick your signs to the pitcher.

When you are giving signs, do whatever is comfortable,to where you can get your knees pointing straight out to block view, but when you move into your catching stance, spread your legs out and put your weight on your instep.

I'm of the "flat-footed" camp, after having tried both techniques over the years.

The "traditional" style of being up on the balls of your feet did three things that I did not like:

1. created a higher target
2. limited side-to-side mobility
3. caused me to "pop up" and slow down my throws to 2B

I think if you use a throwing style of pushing off your back foot and throwing (no jab step), you're better off using the "flat-footed" technique as it keeps you back longer and keeps you lower.

But as mentioned before you're not really flat-footed; most of your weight is on your insteps, starting at the balls of your feet and going back to the inside of your heels.

Very interesting topic. I am the dad of a 13u who does a lot of catching. He has had no catcher specific training and just tries to copy what he sees on MLB tv games. I don't know that much attention has been given to foot placement when he tries to copy what he sees. My son seems to stand up too tall to throw down to second. I am adding two links of pictures of him catching. One is probably getting ready to receive, the other is giving signs. Any observations are appreciated. thanks

Getting ready

Signs

bkekcs, I'd love to comment, but it's hard to do so on a still not knowing the exact sequence. I hope you understand this. I may comment that he is up on his toes in the receiving stance when in fact the picture is taken just prior to his dropping into a good solid receiving position.

If in fact he is up on the balls of his feet when receiving this could be a cause of his standing up tall to throw down.

JMO

Deacon very valid point. I'm just guessing as to where he is in the sequence of the stance.

bkekcs, one suggestion would be to have your son take a few dry runs and photograph these. One giving signs, one receiving with no one on base and one in his "man on" stance. Have him get in position and then take the shot. Post these on here and I can bet you will get some very good input. You can also compare these control shots to pictures taken in game situations.

CatchingCoach05, I have the video from catchingcoach and it is fantatstic. It covers receiving, blocking, fielding and throwing in detail. He uses players of all ages to illustrate methods that I believe are very sound. The video is very informative and is geared at teaching coaches how to teach their catcher's proper fundementals. He shows in the video how a task should be done, why it should be done this way and how to teach it. As a father of a young catcher I have done a lot of reading and research to try and help my boy. I Highly reccomend this video.

Tim

bkekcs,
I think your son is too high and not wide enough. Compare it to this ***.


With his butt as high as it is he will have problems blocking a ball that tries to get beteween his legs and not being wide enough prohibts him from moving left and right.

start off flat footed with your toes pointed straiight forward. this keeps you relaxed and able to adjust to wild/errant throws. as the ball starts to come to the plate, let your weight start to come up to your balls of your feet. just before impact try and let your left knee tuck in or collapse in a bit in order to get your body to turn into position. everything happens at once, so as the ball hits your glove and you go to transfer, let your weight bring you forward and drive your legs into a throwing position